Anger at how a confluence of industry manipulation and government neglect created a danger for the public.

Chemicals that are used in household furnishings such as sofas and chairs to slow fire do not work.

"The fire just laughs at it," a leading fire scientist told the Tribune, referring to flame retardant foam.

And some fire retardant materials used over the years pose serious health risks. They have been linked to cancer, neurological deficits, developmental problems and impaired fertility. A lot of household furniture is chock full of these chemicals. They escape from the furniture and settle in dust. That's particularly dangerous for toddlers, who play on the floor and put things in their mouths.

Wrap your mind around this: A typical American baby is born with the highest recorded concentrations of flame retardants among infants in the world.

And adults? Blood levels of certain widely used flame retardants doubled in adults every two to five years between 1970 and 2004. Recent studies show levels haven't budged even though some chemicals have been yanked from the market.

You may be sitting on a sofa that has two pounds of fire retardant in the cushions. It may be in the padding underneath your carpet. In your child's highchair and diaper-changing pads.

You have been sold a false sense of security about the risk of your furniture burning, and you've been exposed to dangerous chemicals you didn't know about. If you're not angry, you ought to be.

How were U.S. consumers and manufacturers sold on the safety and effectiveness of flame retardant chemicals?

The Tribune series found:

•The tobacco industry launched an aggressive campaign decades ago to convince Americans that the problem of house fires sparked by cigarettes shouldn't be solved by creating a "fire-safe" cigarette. Instead, the industry shifted the focus to the furniture often ignited by smoldering cigarettes. A tobacco representative helped organize the National Association of State Fire Marshals and shaped its requests for federal rules requiring flame retardant furniture.

•A prominent burn doctor's misleading testimony was part of a campaign of deception and distortion on the efficacy of these chemicals. The chemical industry "has disseminated misleading research findings so frequently that they essentially have been adopted as fact," Roe and Callahan wrote.

•The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, whose mission is to safeguard America's health and environment, has allowed generation after generation of flame retardants onto the market without rigorously evaluating the health risks.

We welcome the quick response and clear-eyed assessment of this from Sen. Dick Durbin.

"It is now clear that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, wittingly or unwittingly, has allowed the manufacturers of these chemicals to flood American households with substances that abundant scientific evidence finds harmful," Durbin wrote to EPA officials in a letter released Thursday.

Durbin is also pressing the Consumer Product Safety Commission to explain why it has dragged its feet on flammability rules for furniture. He's in good position to demand answers — Durbin played a key role in reforming the once notoriously industry-friendly commission in 2008. It looks, though, like that job hasn't been completed.

We're talking about the safety of people in their own homes. Products that were sold as protecting them instead can harm them. Anger? That's too mild. This is outrageous.